Article · 7 min read

Lessons from Nithin Kamath, CEO of Zerodha

Antoine Buteau · antoinebuteau.com Free Beginner India

India's most respected bootstrapped founder built a profitable giant while guarding his attention hard: he shuts down work comms after 7 PM and defines wealth as control over your time, not money. Kamath ran Zerodha with no sales targets and no ad spend, proof that a relentless default-no to distractions (external growth theatre included) is what let him ship. Local evidence that protecting attention is not a luxury, it's the strategy.

  • 'Wealth is control over your time', a founder's mandate to treat attention as the scarcest asset in the company
  • Kamath enforces the boundary with a hard rule (no work comms after 7 PM) rather than relying on willpower in the moment
  • Saying no at the company level (no sales targets, no ad spend, lean teams) removed whole categories of distraction so the team could focus on the product
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The question it answers

  1. How do I stop saying yes to every coffee, podcast, and networking event and getting nothing shipped?

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